Modern ClassicsFall

Amaretto Sour

This spec: Jeffrey Morgenthaler, Clyde Common, Portland, Oregon, 2012

The Amaretto Sour is amaretto and bourbon shaken with lemon and egg white. The bourbon dries out amaretto's sweetness and adds backbone, and the egg white gives it a thick, smooth texture. A crowd-pleaser for early November.

  • GlassRocks
  • MethodShaken
  • Ingredients5
Amaretto Sour

Ingredients

Making a batch?
Servings
Lemon twist and a Luxardo maraschino cherryGarnish
Total volume—

Directions

  1. Shake all ingredients hard without ice until frothy.
  2. Add ice and shake until chilled.
  3. Double strain into a rocks glass filled with ice.

ToolsJiggerShakerHawthorne strainerFine strainerRocks glass

Don't have these? Build a drink from your shelf →

History

The Amaretto Sour boomed in the 1970s. In 2012, Portland bartender Jeffrey Morgenthaler, then at Clyde Common, published a version that added cask-strength bourbon and egg white. He called for Luxardo amaretto and Booker's bourbon, and the spec helped bring the drink back into craft bars. This recipe follows his.

Making a batch? Scale it for a crowd, add dilution water, and see how many bottles to buy.
Quick sizes
How are you making it? ⓘ Batching includes dilution water. Pre-batched cocktails need added water to replace the melt from stirring or shaking. We use Jeffrey Morgenthaler's standard: 18% for spirit-forward drinks, 25% for shaken.

What you'll need to buy

Based on 750ml bottles (25.4 oz), rounded up.

Bottle math, generally

750ml bottle25.4 oz
2 oz pours per bottle12 cocktails
1.5 oz pours per bottle16 cocktails
1 oz =29.6 ml
This recipe per 750ml of spirit—

Don't have these bottles? Work with what you've got.

Tell the Cocktail Creator what's on your shelf and what mood you're in — it'll show you every drink you can make tonight.

Open the Cocktail Creator →